I wonder if there even exists any kind of hard and fast rule when it comes to adjectives for place name nouns. My guess is that it goes by what sounds best, tradition, and/or what the people of that country prefer.

I know that for Israel the adjective is Israeli. Although the sound is the same, I can't imagine this with a y at the end. And while I believe that in some other language Israelis might be referred to as Israelians, we [I lived there for 25 years and am a dual citizen] would never call ourselves that.

An example of preference is with Scotland, where both Scots and Scottish (but never Scotch) could both be used. One reference I looked at claimed that Scottish is for more formal usage.

PS: Anders, how are you?

"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."Anonymous

In Swedish, we make a difference between "israeliter" and "israeler", the former being those Arabs who left nomadism and established themselves as sedentary agriculturalists in Palestine, and the latter, being the present-day inhabitants of Palestine who are of the Jewish faith.

Long ago I used to refer to a college classmate from Baltimore as a Baltimoron. Alas, I found out later I wasn't the first. Reporter, editor, author and Baltimore native H. L. Menken used the same adjective/proper noun for his fellow denizens of the city.

In my defense I can only say that great minds think alike . . .

Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." -- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Stargzer wrote:Long ago I used to refer to a college classmate from Baltimore as a Baltimoron. Alas, I found out later I wasn't the first. Reporter, editor, author and Baltimore native H. L. Menken used the same adjective/proper noun for his fellow denizens of the city.

In my defense I can only say that great minds think alike . . .

Ah yes, which brings up the Mainiacs and, for 51% of another state, the Michigeese...

Perry wrote:An example of preference is with Scotland, where both Scots and Scottish (but never Scotch) could both be used. One reference I looked at claimed that Scottish is for more formal usage.

Just my two pence, I believe Scots refers to the lowlanders, particularly their language, being a dialect of English with abundant sprinklings of Gaelic and Old English, while Scottish would be the general adjective describing anything or anyone from Scotland (and also used to distinguish that country's Gaelic from the Irish).

Garzo the Garzonian, good to see you back! You missed an opportunity to mention Mancunian. This one is interesting because it goes back to the Roman Empire.
BTW the photo in the link would be good for the Oral Blunder floss: oops I mean thread.

Sluggo, when I was growing up in Michigan, we used Michigander. Perhaps Michigas [Yiddishized Hebrew for craziness/crazy things] would be more apt.

"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."Anonymous